Here's a fish story that's almost as bad as tales of the legendary candirú. The climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) is a small fish that possesses an organ that allows it to breathe atmospheric oxygen for several hours at a time. Its musculature also allows the fish to move terrestrially. (Watch a tidbit of the above video. See those perch flopping about on dry land? Get that image firmly in your mind, and apologies in advance.)

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These handy evolutionary traits recently resulted in a nightmarish scenario when 12-year-old Philip Muan of Rumah Endawie Nangka Jela Engkari, Malaysia got one of these hardy creatures stuck in his throat for 14 hours. As Star Online explains:

He removed the hook and tried to bite the head of the [four-centimeter-long] fish to kill it but it slipped into his mouth and lodged itself in his throat [...]

It was already 11 PM by the time he arrived [at the hospital] and the boy was spitting blood. The fish had by then died and a foul smell emanated from the boy's mouth. The operation to remove the dead fish took just a few minutes.

This incident happened at 9 AM in the morning, so this poor kid spent most of his waking day with a confused fish slowly dying in his throat. If "wiggling fish that can breathe air asphyxiates in your gullet" isn't a form of obscure underworld torture on display at Singapore's Haw Par Villa amusement park, it really deserves to be.